During the summer of 1989, a group would meet one evening a week in a tipi on a wooded ridge a few miles south of The Farm which came to be known as Turtle Hill. After gathering in a dwelling on the south slope and sharing tea, participants left the house in silence, following a circuitous path in the dark for a half-mile before entering the 'white womb.' A small fireplace and altar occupied the central area. Candlelight, incense, flowers, crystals - pre-buddhist hippies. This was the first structure ever purposed for non-Christian spiritual communion in our area. After a few months of psychic heat and renewed inquiry, the group was quickly encountering the sentient horizons of conditional limitations. Sensing the value of our work together, and desiring that we able to continue in some form we heard some unexpected news as the season drew to a close. Two Tibetan lamas, brothers, would be coming to Tennessee to give teachings. Although most of us had read books on Tibetan Buddhism, no one among of us had ever met a lama. On the autumn equinox, seven of us took refuge vows with the Khenpo Rinpoches in a log cabin on the Cumberland Plateau.

TURTLE HILL © 2010